


Don't Virus and Drive

by CyanideEpitaph



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Depressed!AlexWilder, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:27:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22107814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CyanideEpitaph/pseuds/CyanideEpitaph
Summary: Alex stops by to help Gert with computer problems and ends up facing a virus he didn't expect.
Relationships: Alex Wilder/Gertrude Yorkes
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Don't Virus and Drive

The door slammed shut. Dragging her feet across the floor Gertrude Yorkes returned home slumped over. Face hidden by her freshly dyed purple hair, her grip on a triage of homemade picket signs loosened until they fell from her hand. Clattering to the floor the noise went unacknowledged over the weary sigh she huffed out trudging upstairs.With a soft thump she flopped onto her bed with a sigh, letting her book bag drop to the floor. Reaching out she grabbed one of her many pillows and pulled it to her face before screaming into its softness. Her grip tightened with each scream burying her face further and further. At the chime of the front door bell she wearily removed her face with knitted brows. Hearing it again she stood up and left wildly ruffling her hair. 

"Who could it be," She mused walking past Molly's room to find her sleep tucked in with an insane abundance of stuffed animals, "I doubt Dad locked himself out with Mom with him."

  
  


By the third chime she reached the door and wrenched it open revealing an amused Alex Wilder. Blinking owlishly Gert attempted to form words at the boy's appearance. 

"Did you forget?" He shifted his weight to his right side with a raised brow. At her continued silence he retrieved his phone from his pocket and tapped away on it for a few moments. Holding up his screen he allowed her to read their last text conversation:

Ramona Flowers 

Saturday, October 16th, 2015

Are you okay?

Sunday, November 27th, 2015

Alex!

My laptop freaked out and crashed!

Can you help? I have a presentation on Wednesday. 

Free Monday afterschool?

Yes! Thank you so much!

  
  


"I thought you were bad with nicknames." She commented finally finding words. Giving one last glance at the first text, her heart sank a bit and she met his eyes with a wry smile. 

"Amy." She thought biting her lip. 

"I'm bad with codenames. There's a difference." He tucked his phone away and adjusted his bag, "So where's the patient?"

"I'll get it. You can do your tech thing in the living room." Gert ushered him in closing the door with a kick. 

  
  


Returning to her room she reached for her laptop on the desk pausing at a framed photograph. Picking up the frame she glided her fingers across the glass showing herself, her friends, and Amy when they were much younger. Seeing Alex beside Nico and Molly her eyes narrowed in thought. 

"Can't believe I haven't spoken to him in a month." Setting the photo down she exchanged it for her laptop and left, "At least we'll always have yesterday."

  
  


Downstairs Alex finished his typing to adjust his glasses eyes narrowed at the white text flowing across the black screen. Across the dining room table Gert sat leaning on her hand staring her friend down deep in thought. 

"Gert? Earth to Gert." Alex waved in front of her face a few times before slamming his hand on the table, "Feminism is a fake movement!"

Jolted out of her thoughts she blinked as Alex snorted. Folding her arms she fell back in her chair with a frown. 

"Not funny." Her nose scrunched.

"Sorry. Sorry. You were just so lost in thought." He attempted a remorseful look behind a small smile, "Rough day?"

"With my anxiety all my days are rough days." She drummed her fingers on the table. 

"I'm sorry." The smile faded in an instant. 

"It's not your fault. You didn't wire my brain like this." She shrugged. 

"Still though. Do you want to talk about it or be distracted from it?" He leaned forward. 

"Alex Wilder. Are you trying to use a coping mechanism to help me? So my mental health presentation in psych class really stuck." A small grin appeared. 

"How can I forget when you beat it into our heads." He laughed before growing quieter, "And some of them really helped me." 

"Alex-" She straightened in her chair, a softness in her voice. 

"So distraction?" He powered through showing her laptop screen of a wolf biting a human hand, "You're good to go on educating the world on the error of its ways."

"It was that easy?" She moved to his side of the table and clicked away at different apps watching each open with gleeful eyes. 

"No. But I make it look that way." He leaned on his hand with a smirk. 

"How can I repay you?" She rested a hand on his shoulder and retracted it just as quickly. 

"I could go for a frosty beverage." He coughed, "In a non sexist expectation kind of way."

"Just this once." She smiled patting the growing poof that was hair, "Letting it grow out?"

"I thought it was time to try something different." His cheeks heated up at the sudden contact. 

"I like it." With that she walked into the kitchen as Alex turned back to her laptop biting back a smile. 

  
  


Sometime later Alex finished draining the dregs of a red liquid before setting the glass on the table. 

"Well it wasn't a frosty beverage. But thanks, Gert." He licked his lips relishing the taste. Prying herself from her laptop Gert stood grabbing the glass. 

"Good thing Dad is on this juice cleanse and made a pitcher." She remarked heading for the kitchen.

"Your dad has good taste." He called over his shoulder. 

"Don't encourage him." She rolled her eyes at his laugh. Rinsing the glass out she placed it in the sink and turned to find Molly standing in the side doorway rubbing her eye sleepily. 

"Hey, G. Why's Alex here?" She spoke in Spanish stifling a yawn resting her head on the doorway. 

"I needed help with my laptop remember?" Gert responded in kind smiling at the state of her sister, "Still practicing for the talent show?"

"Yeah. My dance skills are going to blow everyone away." She pumped her fist sluggishly before yawning again even louder, "I'm going back to bed."

Turning to leave Molly called over her shoulder before departing back upstairs, "Mom and Dad are at their Pride lab late tonight. Leftovers in the fridge and some note about red stuff."

With a raised brow Gert found the note stuck to the cool metal of the fridge by a lucky cat magnet. Skimming the nuances of love, affection, and patronizing her parents were known for she reached the bottom of the note that was in bold with underlined letters. 

"Horse viruses!" She cupped her hands around her mouth with a mind ablaze with gruesome thoughts. Walking almost robotically to the living room she found Alex digging through his book bag. Resting a hand on his shoulder she attempted to smile with far too many teeth. 

"Hey, Alex." The note crunched in her balled fist. 

"Yeah, Gert?" He turned his attention away from his bag, "What's wrong with your face?"

"We need to get to my parents. Like right now." She said through clenched teeth firmly squeezing his shoulder.

"Why?" He blinked innocently. 

  
  


Hurtling down the road at a clearly unsafe speed, Alex braced himself between the armrest and sidedoor of Gert's car with hard deep breaths. Lights of other cars danced around them in the freshly started night as Gert served into lane after lane cutting off any car too slow to get out of her away. 

"Gert slow down!" Alex all but screamed adjusting his glasses as the last swerve almost took them clean off his face. 

"Sorry. Did you not understand the words horse and or viruses!" Her hands flashed about the steering wheel alternating between turning and hitting the blinker. 

"I understood that! But it won't matter if I die in this fucking car!" He clenched his eyes shut as they swung around a semi at the last second almost rear ending it. 

"Are you feeling anything? Fever? Wooziness? Chest pain?" She ignored his statement giving alternating looks between him and the road. 

"The only thing I'm feeling is the heart attack you're giving me!" He glared at her before looking back at the road with wide eyes, "The taco stand! Gert! Watch out for the taco stand!"

  
  


Drumming her fingers on the glass table of her parents PRIDE laboratory, Gert eyed her mother as the Yorkes matron stared intently at a screen. Ever changing it displayed a multitude of biometric data courtesy of Alex's recent blood sample. 

"Anything, mom?" Her eyes shifted to Alex sitting on a bar stool a few feet from her mother with his exposed arm resting on the cool glass. 

"Well, Alex." Stacey stated after a moment turning to face him with a smile, "You're in good health for a boy your age. Just lay off the sugary drinks."

"So no horse viruses?" Gert questioned after sharing a sigh of relief with Alex. 

"None, dear." Stacey twittered adjusting her glasses, "Though it baffles me why you didn't read my note. This silliness could've been avoided."

"Who leaves horse viruses in a pitcher in a fridge? At least label it properly!" Gert argued crossing her arms with a scowl. 

"That was your father's job. He must've confused it for his juice pitcher. I was busy cleaning up the deinon-" Stacey coughed over her slip up while clearing the machine of Alex's blood sample,"The disaster in the lab that night."

"Wait. What did you say?" Gert’s eyes narrowed. 

"Either way. I'm happy to be alive, healthy, and in one piece." Alex stood stretching his arms wide, "Think I'll take an uber home."

"You don't trust me?" Gert held a hand to her heart. 

"You murdered a taco stand." Alex deadpanned. 

"You did what, Gertrude?" Stacey turned on her daughter. 

"Whoops." He wilted under Gert's glare. Hearing the lab door open the triad turned to see Dale enter, drinking red liquid from a glass holding a pitcher in his other hand. At the looks of shock and worry he lowered the glass with a raised brow. 

"What?" He wiggled the partially empty glass at them, "It's for my juice cleanse."

"Oh, Dale." Stacy ushered her confused husband to Alex's former seat and rolled up his lab coat sleeve. 

**Author's Note:**

> So this is the beginning of me trying to get back into writing. I watched the last season of Runaways and something always bugged me. How certain characters spend no time with other characters and one of those were Alex and Gert. For the two most pop culture savvy of the group outside Nico it seemed weird to me that they didn't spend more time together.  
> Is there more?  
> Who knows?  
> No one. Not even me. Whenever inspiration strikes.
> 
> A little late in the game but for this AU (and possible others), I've combined a few things between the show, the comic, and the actors. It seems more interesting to have Gert be like her actress Ariela Barer being Mexican and Jewish (Well former with Gert staying an atheist), with the size she has in the comics (especially in the most recent run of the comics). Alex is pretty par for the course though I did try to make him a bit funnier because a nerd trying to land references left and right needs more comedy, amirite?


End file.
